Train Tracks
by KagamineKagami
Summary: Sanada's young son has a very active imagination, so now he's forced to play a heroic sheriff who must save a damsel in distress.


Train Tracks

**I wrote Knights and Dragons for Kurayami-9, and I really liked the Sanada family, so here they are again! This takes place about two years after Knights and Dragons, but it isn't necessary to read that to understand this. -Rin**

Sanada Genichirou was doing his mental exercises, using a pair of chopsticks to move beans one at a time from one bowl to another. It was a daily activity, and he wouldn't stop until he had successfully moved all one hundred beans into the second bowl. If he dropped one, he would put it back and try again. His family wasn't exactly sure what the point of it was, but they usually didn't bother him.

Today, however, was not a usual day, and Genichirou was interrupted. He had only moved twenty beans when he heard his wife Seiko yelling for help, but he dropped his chopsticks and ran to find her immediately, knocking a bowl of beans off the table in his hurry.

He found the kitchen empty, but Seiko's repeated shouting helped him make his way to their son Genshi's room. He threw open the door and looked around for any sort of danger, but what he saw only confused him. Seiko was sitting on the floor with her legs out in front of her and a rope draped over her shoulders. Genshi, recently eight, was dressed in a cape and hat with matching gloves. Seiko smiled when she saw him, and turned to Genshi.

"I told you he'd come! Now you're finished!" Genichirou looked at his wife, and then at his son, not comprehending the situation. Genshi cackled maniacally.

"You're too late, Sheriff Blackcap! The train comes in two minutes, and then the lady will be flattened!" Genichirou blinked in confusion. Who was Sheriff Blackcap? _Wait._ He glanced up at the black cap he always wore. Was that supposed to be him? And what was this about a train?

Upon further inspection, he found that the track of the toy train they had gotten Genshi for Christmas was laid beneath Seiko's ankles. Then it dawned on him: this was a game, and he was supposed to join in.

"Uh...I'll save her...?" Genshi ignored his father's terrible acting and grabbed the remote for the toy train, switching it on.

"But will you choose to save her over this kindly old lady?" He indicated with a sweeping gesture a doll lying in a circle of stuffed crocodiles. Seiko gasped theatrically.

"You fiend! Sheriff, you must save the old lady!" Well, it was only a plastic train, right? There was no reason why he couldn't save both his wife and the "old lady."

"I'll save you both." He picked up the doll, saving it from the crocodiles, and turned back to his family.

"Tick, tock, Sheriff!" Genshi was holding a pocket watch and watching the little train trundle forward, towards Seiko. Genichirou picked up the train just before it bumped into his wife's legs, and she beamed at him.

"You've saved me! Thank you."

"Uh...you're welcome?" Genshi interrupted their reunion with a swish of his cape.

"You may have foiled this plan, but you'll never catch me!" And he ran from the room laughing. Seiko raised an eyebrow when Genichirou didn't move.

"Aren't you going to stop him?" She stood up and waved a hand at him. "Go on, you have to bring the villain to justice before the game can end." Somewhat reluctantly, Genichirou went to find his son.

He went into the kitchen and looked under the table, then felt a weight drop onto his back.

"I've got you now, Sheriff Blackcap!" Genshi had been hiding behind a cabinet and jumped on him when he knelt to look beneath the table. After a brief scuffle, Genichirou was able to pick up his flailing son.

"Nooooo! I've been captured!" Genichirou had to suppress a smile.

"And I'm taking you to jail." He carried Genshi back to his room, where Seiko was still waiting for them, and put him down on the dinosaur bedspread.

"I demand you let me out of here, Sheriff!" But Genichirou shook his head.

"No, you have to take the punishment for your crimes. Just be glad you won't hang for this!" Genshi snorted and sat back on the bed.

"My posse will come for me, just you wait!" He shook his fist for a moment, then grinned.

"Thanks for playing with us, Dad. That was fun!" Seiko grabbed his hand and threaded her fingers through his. He smiled

"Yes, it was."


End file.
